Being More than a Hashtag – Actively Supporting Women Leaders and Entrepreneurs
Looking on social media, you will see many hashtags for women supporting women, female empowerment, girl power, women empowering women and more. While I feel all these hashtags and posts are important, what I find the most empowering is when we as women take action to actively support one another.
During the summer of 2020 in the midst of the pandemic, I found myself making more of an initiative of being more that a hashtag. Looking at my immediate surrounding of women I engage with, I found that a majority of them were female leaders, authors, speakers, business owners and entrepreneurs in a vast array of specialties. I quickly began to brainstorm a way to share my contacts with my friends and acquaintances so that we could learn from each other, build new relationships and support each other’s endeavors.
This past July, I held my second “Women’s Summer Speaker Series” where I invited a group of 50 women to join me at my home. I asked my friend Monica Miraglio to be my keynote speaker. Monica is a fashion model, business owner of Style with Monica and most recently launched her newest initiative Girlbuild. What makes her even more unique is that she is highly successful in the male dominated field of construction where she strips homes to its foundation and rebuilds with incredible style and quality.
Together with Monica we created a beautiful and welcoming environment where our intimate guestlist allowed us to mingle and learn more about each other. I created a directory of female owned businesses for everyone to be able to utilize for future reference.
Monica spoke from the heart about her journey to become a female leader in a male driven career all while being her feminine self and not conforming the ideals of others. Much of her success comes down to her strong work ethic and being authentic to who she is as a woman.
During my event, I stressed the importance of personal responsibility and taking action. So often we have good intentions, but never follow through. With the pandemic hurting so many small businesses, now more than ever it is important for us to actively support those within our local communities.
I also brought up a not so popular topic. Many times, which I have personally experienced throughout my various careers, we tend to be our own worst enemies. Instead of taking action, we blame others for our lack of personal success. Many women preach about supporting one another and then put down others who are taking risks and creating their own success. There is so much that goes behind the psychology of this behavior, which is too much to cover in this blog. However, we can all take the first step to understand our own behaviors and truly go out and support one another. I admit, for many years I lived with a victim mentality mindset, and when I took the initiative to learn why I lived this way and changed my thinking to one of gratitude and giving, my life completely changed to one of prosperity and clarity.
I was asked many times why I held this event in my home without any sponsors or outside help. Why invest my time and money for something that I do not get a financial return? Quite simply, I found it as my way to give back to my female counterparts and celebrate their successes.
I am a firm believer that when we make the decision to work together and help one another, whether it is someone beginning a new venture or a well-seasoned business owner, we intellectually grow stronger and begin to build our own foundation.
In essence, the women who attended did indeed give back to me in ways that money could never buy. They gave me their time, their support, and their attention to my little project that I know will grow into something much bigger. Not only did they give back to me, but they gave to themselves and everyone in attendance.
It is heartwarming to think back to my event and the smiles on everyone’s faces. I do hope that it provided a positive impact and next time we go out and shop or look for a service, we make an effort to support one of the many female leaders and business owners that are out making it happen!
Next time you post #womensupportingwomen, be sure that you actively do so. It can be as simple as following a female owned business, reposting their story or buying a product from them!
Ladies, we got this! Together we are stronger…with or without the hashtag!
Much love,
Inez xo
Monica Miraglilo at one of her many completed properties.